The Invitation to Change Model: An Integrated Approach for Guiding Family Responses to a Loved One Using Substances

With Carrie Wilkens, Ph.D., and Nicole Kosanke, Ph.D.

CEs: 6Cost: $125.00

Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) affect approximately 30% of American adults during their lifetime. A majority of individuals struggling with these problems do not seek treatment and their concerned significant others (CSOs—family members, close friends) often bear the burden of motivating substance users to seek help. Unfortunately, CSOs are often told by mental health professionals that they need to “distance with love” or “stop enabling” instead of being given active behavioral strategies for effectively responding to substance use behaviors which increase treatment engagement and improve overall family functioning.

Few mental health professionals are trained in the best evidence based treatments (EBTs) for these families. The Invitation to Change Model integrative treatment strategies and skills from Motivational Interviewing (MI), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and the Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT), a unilateral treatment with robust evidence (across a range of SUDs/patient demographics) of effectiveness in reducing substance use and promoting treatment engagement of substance users and improving the psychosocial functioning of CSOs.

Learning Objectives:

A fuller understanding of the multifaceted motivational and behavioral challenges associated with substance use disorders to decrease clinician-perceived barriers to involving family members and improve clinician sense of competence for improving the clinical care of substance users and their families.

An improved understanding of evidence-based behavioral and motivational strategies for family members of substance users which decrease substance use, increase treatment engagement, and increase psychosocial functioning of all family members.

A review of the specific skills that are covered in CRAFT and MI. Clinicians will be given resources that can help facilitate the discussion and implementation of these skills in their practice.

Facilitate attendee’s ability to distinguish these EBT concepts from traditional approaches currently utilized in the field with family members of substance users. This will include contrasting CRAFT with culturally ubiquitous concepts (and not supported by the evidence) for how families need to think about substance use such as “enabling,” “co-dependence,” and “tough love.”

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About the Speakers

Carrie Wilkens, Ph.D., is the co-founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Motivation and Change in NYC, a private practice of psychologists who specialize in the treatment of substance use/compulsive behavior disorders and trauma using a variety of evidence-based treatments. She is also a partner in the CMC facility in the Berkshires; a private, inpatient/residential program employing the same treatment approaches in Massachusetts. She co-authored an award-winning book, Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change with Drs. Foote and Kosanke. Together with other CMC psychologists they co-wrote a user-friendly workbook for parents, called The 20 Minute Guide: A Guide for Parents about How to Help their Child Change Their Substance Use, and developed a national parent training program (the Parent Support Network) to provide parent coaches to families in need of support through a free hotline. She is also President of the CMC Training Institute, a not-for-profit with the mission of training professionals in effective treatments and expanding the parent support network into communities with fewer resources and access to treatment. She is regularly sought out by the media to discuss issues related to substance use disorders and has been on the CBS Morning Show, Katie Couric Show, Fox News and frequent NPR segments. She is also in the recent HBO documentary Risky Drinking.

Nicole Kosanke, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and director of Family Services at the Center for Motivation and Change’s outpatient division in NYC, where she specializes in working with family members of people abusing substances and in the assessment process for families and individuals. Dr Kosanke has been working in the research and clinical practice of treating substance use disorders for many years and utilizes the principles of CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training), MI (Motivational Interviewing), and CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) in different therapeutic modalities and resources: group, individual, family, video training, and written materials. She recently co-authored the award-winning book, Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, which is a compassionate and science-based family guide for navigating the addiction treatment world, understanding motivation, and using CRAFT skills. She also contributed to The 20 Minute Guide: A Guide for Parents about How to help their Child Change Their Substance Use. She has been interviewed on radio programs about substance abuse issues, and her writing on these topics has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Observer, and Counselor magazine.

This event has been cosponsored with the generous support of:

Continuing Education Credit

Social Workers: Adelphi University School of Social Work is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0032.

Mental Health Counselors: Adelphi University School of Social Work is recognized by the NYS Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0068

Marriage and Family Therapists: Adelphi University is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider for continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists. #MFT-0038

Psychologists: Adelphi University School of Social Work is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The School of Social Work maintains responsibility for the program and its contents.

CASAC training hours: Program information has been submitted to the New York State Office of Addiction and Substance Abuse Services Education and Training for earning or re-credentialing for CASAC clock hours.

New York State Office of the Professions (NYSED) regulations require that participants must be present for the entire approved educational activity in order to receive a certificate for continuing education credits. There is no accommodation in the State regulations for late arrival, late return from lunch or breaks, or early departure. According to NYSED, in order to award social work CEUs; “When you offer a multi-day or multi-part course/educational activity, the learner must complete all parts in order to earn the certificate for contact hours, in the same way that a student must complete a semester-long course to receive college credit. You may not award partial credit for a program, even a one-day program, if the learner does not complete all requirements at that time.”

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